


a reason to be merry

by hyerewolf



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: (i guess), Christmas, F/F, Fluff, elf yoohyeon, music producer yubin, this is lowkey a hallmark movie and i'm not sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21630556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyerewolf/pseuds/hyerewolf
Summary: Yubin thinks she's content with her life, until Yoohyeon barges into her life, speaking nonsense about the Christmas spirit and happiness.
Relationships: Kim Yoohyeon/Lee Yoobin | Dami
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49
Collections: 2yoo Fic Fest 2019





	a reason to be merry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [YoohyeonApple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YoohyeonApple/gifts), [citrusflower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrusflower/gifts).



> prompt: mistletoe and sugar cookies 
> 
> my first work for dreamcatcher and it's a holiday fic, exciting!

Yubin rubs her left temple with her hand as she watches her computer compress and save the files. The songs she's been working on for the past few days are almost finished and she is about to send the final product to her client. Well, as soon as her computer processes it.

From the corner of her eye, she notices her phone's diode flashing in several different colors. She taps the screen twice and winces when she notices the big, white digits of the clock.

1:28am. Okay, sending the files tomorrow morning it is.

With a sigh and a couple of taps more, she unlocks the phone and opens the full list of notifications. Two emails in her inbox that she'll have to look into in the morning, almost a hundred messages in her friend group's chat, a separate message from Gahyeon - "We've settled on going to karaoke in two days, are you free then? We haven't seen each other in a long time :(" - twenty or so Instagram notifs about people liking her posts, a few of them commenting on her latest uploads, and some spam on her private email, most of it Christmas-themed and advertising last-minute sales "for anyone who still needs to buy the gifts". 

One mentions something about "reigniting the Christmas spirit" and "remembering what's important in this time". 

She cleares all of them with a few smooth strokes of her fingertip, not paying them much attention.

At the exact same moment when the computer in front of her finally chirps happily, signalling the completion of the saving process, Yubin hears rapping on her studio's door. She stands up and opens it, expecting to see the cleaning staff.

Definitely not a girl, looking like a runaway elf from a toy store's shopwindow, complete with a pointy hat, velveteen button-up and comically plush shoes, her outfit in shades of pine green, snow white, and royal red, all of it adorned with small silver bells and golden embroidery.

Before Yubin manages to open her mouth and ask about literally anything, the girl smiles warmly at her. "Hello, are you Lee Yubin?"

Yubin turns her eyes to the plaque on the door - _Dream Castle, Dami PD_ , and under that - _Lee Yubin_ in a smaller font - and then back to the girl. "I guess."

"Nice to meet you! I'm here because--"

"It must be uncomfortable, cleaning in this outfit," Yubin points out. 

"I wanted to-- Wait, what?" The girl furrows her brows. "You must be mistaken, I'm not here to clean anything. I swear we sent you an email..."

"Well, I'm not interested in whatever you're selling, _especially_ at this hour. Have a pleasant night." Yubin goes to close the door, but the elf girl raises her hand before she can fully shut it.

"Wait! Listen, I'm Yoohyeon--"

"Okay, have a pleasant night, Yoohyeon."

"Hold on, please, I gotta talk to you--"

"If you don't leave now, I'll call security," grunts Yubin. It would take ages for the elderly man that the company hired as a guard to arrive at this floor, but the girl doesn't have to know that.

That's when, with the look in her eyes like a drowning person that has nothing to lose and everything to gain, still trying to push the door open, the girl shoves her foot between the door and its frame, effectively putting an end to all attempts of closing the door, and blurts out, "I'm a Santa's elf and I was sent here to help you believe again in the Magic of Christmas."

There's the faintest sound of the first four chords of Jingle Bells played on the glockenspiels when she says the last three words, each of them very audibly capitalized.

Yubin figures she's really slowly going insane from the lack of sleep and-slash-or the amount of work.

"I've already donated to the charity of my choice this year," she says, her voice flat. And what if said charity had more to do with saving pandas than spreading the Christmas spirit? "Good luck next year. Maybe try earlier than five days before Christmas. Well, four, but I still haven't slept, so for me it's still yesterday."

Cringing at the realization that she's just tried justifying herself to someone dressed like Santa's Little Helper, Yubin tries to shut the door once again. Unfortunately, the velveteen shoe is still in place and not going anywhere, if Yoohyeon's determined face was any kind of indicator.

"I don't want your money!" The girl said, just like someone who really couldn't care less about money would. "Nor am I here to clean your studio. Or sell you anything. I'm serious about that... _elf stuff_ , just... Look, okay?" With that, Yoohyeon squinted, her gaze focused intensely on her own outstretched palm. A string of white light forms above it, resembling a rope, and then, like fruits sprouting on a branch, colorful Christmas lights pop out. They blink on and off happily, completely unsuitable to the situation.

Yubin blinks back at them, and then at the girl, who is still focused on the lights, as they slowly dissipate like sand blown by heavy wind. Yubin's almost sure some of that sand must be in her eyes and causing her to [hallucinate].

"How did you..."

"I told you, I'm Santa's elf. Now, will you listen to me or not?"

Yubin closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. " _I need a drink._ "

"I can grab you some water if you tell me where is the kitchen or the machine or something."

"...Not that kind of drink."

Yoohyeon's face goes blank. "Then what-- Ohhh. Oh. I get it. Okay. A drink." She nods.

Yubin looks over her outfit for the second time that night. "By the way, aren't you cold, walking around like that?" Not waiting for a reply, she clicks her tounge. "I should have some spare clothes that might fit you."

* * *

Stepping into Yubin's flat, Yoohyeon gets greeted with two things - soft, high-pitched squeals coming from a large cage on the low table in the corner, and the smell of old takeout food coming from greasy boxes on the small table next to the wall. She was warned about the circumstances in the files she was given before being sent off, but it all still takes her by surprise. 

Yubin simply throws her bag on the floor by her shoes that she's already kicked off and heads straight to the cage, where two rats - both mostly white - scatter up to the entrance. With a soft smile and the gentlest "Hi there, I missed you too", she opens the cage and scoops both of them into her hands, and that's when Yoohyeon notices black splotches on their backs, one blotch on one, and two on the other. The rodents scale up Yubin's sleeves and settle in the hood of her hoodie. With her two little passangers aboard, the producer heads to the small kitchen, not even once looking at Yoohyeon, who is still standing awkwardly by the door.

There's a sound of a fridge being opened and closed, and then a hiss coming from the kitchen. After a minute or so Yubin pokes her head out the doorframe with a curious look. "You coming?"

Yoohyeon, as if woken up from deep sleep, rushes to the kitchen, remembers she's still wearing her velveteen slippers halfway there, runs back to the door, throws her shoes off - with one of them bouncing off of the door with a soft _clack_ \- and storms into the kitchen.

She almost collides with a counter. Yubin almost laughs. The two rats almost wake up. Yoohyeon's cheeks almost catch on fire.

"I'm not usually this clumsy," she says, dusting off her puffy, red-and-green pants with as much dignity as she can muster. "It's been a long day, that's all."

Yubin chuckles. "You tell me." She sits down, a bottle of beer on a small table in front of her. She gestures to the chair on the opposite side, so that's where Yoohyeon sits, still very much embarrassed and unsure of herself in the new surroundings. "No, seriously, tell me," Yubin encourages her when the elf girl just looks around instead of speaking.

"Oh, well." Yoohyeon scratches the back of her head, slightly tilting her hat in the process. "Usually I don't have to explain anything, but... Well, as said, I'm an elf, and my job here is to make you enjoy Christmas again."

"Shouldn't I get visited by a ghost of my dead associate first?" Yubin chuckles, taking a swing from her bottle.

Yoohyeon looks puzzled - more than before. "No? Wait, do you know anyone like that?"

"You haven't read _A Christmas Carol_?"

Yoohyeon shakes her head. Yubin waves her hand. "Nevermind then. Go on."

Yoohyeon does go on. She explains how the elves are responsible for keeping everyone in good spirits during the holiday season, and how sometimes they are sent to fix someone's attitude torwards Christmas, just like she was sent to fix Yubin's, because everyone noticed that she stopped caring about not working on holidays altogether. Yubin pouts at that, and to distract herself from how cute the producer looks, Yoohyeon starts talking about things she really shouldn't say - like how when someone finds the holiday spirit again, the designated elf's vision lights up royal red for a little while, and how her magic is really limited outside of the North Pole, allowing her to do what essentially are glorified party tricks, like the one with the lights.

She doesn't stop talking when Yubin says it's time to sleep, nor when Yubin brings a comforter and a pillow out of her bedroom and puts them on the couch, apologizing for the mess, nor when she's laying down and cozy, nor when the producer hurries her to reach the conclusion of this whole speech.

So Yoohyeon does

"Are you happy, Lee Yubin?"

Yubin stares at her without any emotions showing on her face. Then she turns around and walks into her bedroom. "Goodnight, Yoohyeon."

She shuts the door behind her, then opens it again, gently scoops the rats out from her hood and puts them in their cage, and shuts herself off in the bedroom again. Then she pretends the question doesn't keep her up half of the night.

* * *

Yubin wakes up to the smell of something warm and vaguely cinnamon-y, so, naturally - being hardened by the two years of living in a dorm room right next to the kitchen before she dropped out - her first instinct is to grab the essentials and _run for her life_. She's lived through eight too many close calls to take the risk of being calm.

It's only when she's scooping up cranky and protesting Stereo from the cage - Mono already stuffed safely into her hoodie's pocket - while trying to remember where she put her wallet last night and wondering if she has the time to grab a pair of socks before everything goes up in flames, that she notices Yoohyeon, standing in the kitchen doorway with a wooden spoon in her hand, wearing an apron. Yubin stops mid-motion, a new kind of fear growing inside her. She doesn't recall owning an apron.

"Good morning!" Yoohyeon's giant smile doesn't soothe the fear at all. "I made a breakfast for us!"

Yubin's stomach rumbles lowly. She slowly puts Stereo down, who scatters away the moment her paws touch the cage bedding. The aroma of cinnamon circles in the room.

Yoohyeon is a good cook, Yubin decides after her fourth spoonful of poached apples cooked in wine with spices that make them taste like the essence of a Christmas Eve morning.

However, Yubin also decides that Yoohyeon is not a very good person after the elf, grinning, tells her to hurry up and dress up, because they're going to buy a tree today and no, Yubin can't just leave it all to her and go to work instead.

* * *

"This is hopeless."

Yoohyeon is sitting in the shower, her red and green Christmas sweater with a smiling reindeer perfectly dry, her phone propped up on the toilet in front of her by a candy cane-shaped griptok on its back. She can feel her legs getting cramped and the humidity is bothering at best, but that's the only place in Yubin's apartment where she can have some privacy.

"How much, in scale from 1 to 10?" asks the girl on her phone's screen. She doesn't even lift her eyes off of the paperwork she's doing, which makes Yoohyeon pout.

"Like, at least -3. I did everything that usually works and nothing's happened, Siyeon, not even the tiniest glimpse of red light!"

It's true; Yoohyeon did try to make Yubin feel the Christmas spirit in the most legit way possible - by decorating, which usually was just enough to remind people of why everyone liked Christmas in the first place: everything just looked too festive not to evoke positive feelings. 

Right after the breakfast they went to buy a small Christmas tree and some ornaments for it, as well as colorful paper, some glue, and glitter so they could make decorations by themselves. "We aren't kindergarten kids," Yubin grumbled, rolling her eyes as she dutifully cut holographic sheets into something very vaguely star-shaped.

And then Yoohyeon only proved her wrong by spilling an entire vial of glitter on the carpet.

In the end, the living room looked like a war zone, glitter and glue on every possible horizontal surface, as well as some vertical ones. The tiniest scraps of paper were strewn around the table. Exactly two and a half paper chains were laid out in front of them, as well as four ornaments held together by a lot of glue and strong will. One of them was put out of its misery by placing it inside the rat cage.

The very next day, taking advantage of the snow that fell at night, Yoohyeon took Yubin for a long day of window shopping, crowned with a walk around the nearby park, decorated with bright lights. Unfortunately by that time the snow has almost melted away and the festive atmosphere was nowhere to be found.

Marathoning Christmas-themed movies after they came back to Yubin's was also more of a miss than a hit, given how they both fell asleep halfway through the second one. They woke up cuddling and only slightly disoriented, but before Yoohyeon could address the way Yubin has been holding her in her arms, the producer ran off to her bedroom with only a quick "goodnight, bye".

And now Yoohyeon was clearly running out of ideas if she decided to call Siyeon in the middle of the busiest time of the year for the Santa's office.

Outside of the bathroom the sound of running water and cluttering dishes dies down and Yubin's loud sigh can be heard. Yoohyeon glances at the door, knowing that her private time could be cut short any second now.

"Hopeless," the elf repeats with a frown. "I have no idea what to do now."

"At least you didn't get shelved _again_ ," Siyeon remarks, making Yoohyeon cringe at the very vivid memory of the five years she's spent filling out the field observation files of two twin boys for the register of good kids. She stares into the distance with unseeing eyes as memories flash in front of her eyes. Siyeon puts down her pen and stares into the camera intensly. "Honestly though, have you maybe tried asking her what she wanted to do? If you're there to help her find happiness in Christmas, then talking with her might be a good idea, you know."

"You don't have to teach me how to do my job," huffs Yoohyeon. She can hear Yubin's footsteps approaching the bathroom, so she leans forward to end the call. She almost doesn't hear Siyeon's "You know I'm right!" as the call disconnects and Yubin pops her head in.

"Hey, so, this is kind of random, but my friends want to go to karaoke and since you and I don't have other plans then I thought... Maybe you wanted to go with me?"

Yoohyeon's almost sure a lightbulb materializes above her head.

* * *

"Yubin!" Gahyeon squeals as soon as she notices her and proceeds to throw herself at the girl. Yoohyeon steps to the side just to make sure she won't be hit with any of her limbs by accident.

The producer doesn't fight the grin that blooms on her face, on the contrary - it grows only wider as the rest of her friends approach her, and soon they're a big, giggling hug pile. Yoohyeon gets pulled into it at some point before she can protest. She can't say she hates it all that much.

"We didn't think you'd make it," one of the girls - Minji, Yoohyeon thinks - says when they're sitting comfortably on a couch in the karaoke place a few minutes and some awkward introductions and explanations later. Yubin looks [embarrassed] but the remark, if the [blush] creeping up her neck is [an indication] of that.

"You've been overworking yourself," states Handong very matter-of-factly while she browses through songs in order to pick one.

"Yeah, you'll die in that studio of yours one day and we'll find out a week later because no one ever visits you there." Bora chuckles, and then hisses, because Gahyeon hits her shoulder just a little too hard. "I'm right though!" she says through gritted teeth.

"I missed you all so much," says Yubin, and the reunion is about to get more emotional than Yoohyeon can handle, but then Handong finally finds a song she wants to sing

After some time and several drinks, when Yubin watches Minji and Yoohyeon belt out a high note in some Wonder Girls' song, Gahyeon cuddled into her side, Handong sitting right next to them, and Bora jumping next to the couch, a small smile creeps onto her lips. She hides it behind her glass right as Yoohyeon looks at her, her eyes sparkling, and Yubin doesn't want to think about the fact that hers are probably shining just as brightly.

She feels happy.

* * *

Yoohyeon's breath turns into a small white cloud as they leave the karaoke place, heading back home. They are mostly silent, except for Yubin humming quietly, still smiling. Yoohyeon tries to focus on her own feet hitting the sidewalk, and not on the other girl's warm hand that somehow managed to sneak into hers.

Suddenly Yubin stops humming, and then she halts completely, making Yoohyeon stumble. 

"Everything okay?" asks the elf, confused.

"You know, I didn't think that's what you meant when you were talking about feeling happy on Christmas. I thought it meant family dinners and caroling and all that, like the movies. But it's not like that for me at all." Yubin stops and looks up for a second, and when Yoohyeon follows her line of sight, she notices a mistletoe on a tree above them.

"I thought I was the happiest working and creating, but that's not it either. Turns out I'm the happiest surrounded by my friends, and that means you as well." Yubin smiles softly. Yoohyeon's stomach does a flip. "I'm glad I met you."

Yoohyeon almost doesn't notice how the edges of the world get redder with every second, the warm color bleeding into her vision, somehow making everything else besides Yubin fade away.

"I know you have to go now, because you did your job, you made me happy, but before you do... I want to do something, okay?"

Yoohyeon can tell her vision gets colored red again, even though she shuts her eyes.

She tastes like sugar cookies and Yubin decides that's her new favorite thing in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter/curiouscat: @bbywolfs  
> scream with me about 2yoo and other stuff


End file.
